Subject: War is Costing Us the Earth -- Demand Peace and Justice!
UPPJ Newsletter
March 2024
There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, 1967
This April 4: Organize a Participatory Reading of Dr. King's "Beyond Vietnam" Speech in Your Community On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before he was killed, in his prophetic speech, "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence," Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. declared: "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." King's speech laid bare the relationship between U.S. wars abroad and the racism and poverty being challenged by the civil rights movement at home, and called for a "revolution of values." The Poor People's Campaignhas picked up Dr. King's unfinished work. We encourage you to organize a participatory reading of the speech in your community this April 4, to build momentum for the Poor People's Campaign Third Reconstruction Agenda to Heal the Nation: End Poverty and Low Wages From the Bottom Up. Click here for UFPJ's toolkit. You can read more.
Global Days of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS): April 15 -- May 15, 2024 We are witnessing the dramatic consequences of escalating global militarization, evident in the numerous armed conflicts around the world, notably in Gaza and Ukraine, but also in many parts of the Global South. We are suffering the consequences of a militaristic approach to international relations and global emergencies, imposed mainly by countries of the North, which are at the same time responsible for most of the weapons produced. Moreover, the direct and indirect environmental impacts resulting from these conflicts and militarization further underscore the pressing need for peace. War is costing us the Earth. As we witness the global consequences of militarization, it becomes urgent to protest military budgets all around the world. Organizations and individuals are invited to join this year's GDAMS, April 15 -- May 15. Learn more.
Lack of Accountability for the 9/11 Attacks and for Torture by the U.S are Enduring Legacies of the War on Terror After a month of hearings in the Guantanamo military commissions, the case against the men accused of planning and supporting the 9/11 terrorist attacks remains stalled by a core dispute overthe admissibility of defendants' confessions to the FBI made after years of torture and interrogation at CIA black sites.The judge in the case, who had earlier announced his pending retirement, recently said he intended to remain on the bench through December of 2024, which would allow him to decide some of the most profound issues in the case:rulings onthe FBI confessions, restrictions on defense attorneys ability to contact CIA agents, and torture as "outrageous government conduct." Options for remedies before the judge include suppression of the confessions, removal of the death penalty, or dismissal of the case. While the 9/11 case drags on, there has been a groundswell in court rulings holding European nations accountable for their involvement in post-9/11 torture, but the U.S. has so far bypassed international sanctions.
Webinar recording: Gaza, Protest, Repression and Germany's Conundrum The global wave of protest against Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza has drawn crackdowns on speech from the streets to university campuses. One place government repression aimed at individuals and groups supporting Palestine has been particularly notable has been Germany. On March 17, United for Peace and Justice presented a panel featuring a variety of voices from Germany, and accounts of similar experiences in the United States. Learning about what is happening in Germany, a country with a history of official regulation of how the Holocaust can be discussed and how "anti-Semitism" should be defined, could provide new insights into the challenges we face in promoting a fair and open discussion of the Gaza crisis, and the history that has led us here.Find the speakers list here. View therecording here. UPDATE: Since our webinar, two of our Palestinian/German speakers had their homes raided by police just days later. Computers and cell phones were taken. And in the past couple of days, Berlin Sparkasse (a German bank) has seized the funds of Judische Stimme (the Jewish Voice for a just peace in the Middle East). They are demanding that JS provide the names of all their members before releasing the block on the account.
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Ceasefire Now! Grassroots Advocacy Days April 9 -- 19, 2024 Nobody should wait until April to demand a permanent ceasefire now, no military aid to Israel, and reversing the ban on funding UNRWA to get badly needed humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. But Peace Action and a growing grassroots network including UFPJ are planning ahead to build participation for Congressional Advocacy Days April 9 - 19. We HAVE to make Congress act! Please join us for meetings on Capitol Hill, or online, to educate Members of Congress and their staff and to advocate for pathways to peace and justice. Plans include April 15 Tax Day actions in Washington, DC and nationally. To amplify our Advocacy Days, we plan to add Call-in Days and social media promotion, with information to come soon.Sign up hereand Speak Truth to Power! Learn more.
Webinar Recording: The Impact of the War on Gaza, on Health Care and Human Rights On February 29th Brooklyn for Peace presented a forum titled "The Impact of The War on Gaza on Health and Human Rights." The speaker was Dr. Alice Rothchild, author, filmmaker, and physician. She has made many trips to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, most recently in August 2023. She is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council, the mentor liaison for "We Are Not Numbers," and serves on the board of the Gaza Mental Health Foundation. The Forum addressed the state of health care in Gaza before the October assault, and highlighted the impact of massive bombing and dislocation on civilians in Gaza and the international human rights laws violations that are occurring. Watch the forum here.
UFPJ Gaza Resources: The Battle to Define Identities The Gaza crisis has highlighted the struggle over who gets to define our identities. Masha Gessen points out in an NPR interview, "the International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of antisemitism, which effectively equates anti-Zionism or criticism of Israel with antisemitism, has been adopted by all European countries, and the U.S. State Department." Yet the centrality of a Jewish state to Jewish identity, has been contested since Zionism's inception, notes Rohin Hensman in "Two conceptions of Jewish identity." Hani Sabra writes that Palestinian identity often is elided by U.S. politicians who denounce "Islamophobia" when Palestinians here at home are attacked, seeking to "maintain the balancing act of supporting Israel's assault on Gaza while appearing to care for their domestic constituencies." Find more resources here.Image: Rousseau Diderot, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
UFPJ Ukraine Resources: Life in Russia's Occupied Territories The UN has issued two reports on human rights in Ukraine. The first, covering ten years of occupation in Crimea, found that the Russian authorities "applied measures that limited fundamental freedoms," and suppressed expressions of Tatar and Ukrainian religions and culture. The second, covering other occupied regions, found "a systematic dismantling of fundamental rights and freedoms; cross-sector measures to stifle dissent; the subversion of Ukrainian systems of governance, administration, justice and education; the imposition of Russian systems and legal frameworks; and the suppression of expressions of Ukrainian culture and identity." Widespread detentions, torture, and disappearances of civilians also occurred. Find these and other resources at the UFPJ Ukraine resource page.
California Bill Would Require Draft Registration for Driver's Licenses A bill to require applicants for California driver's licenses ages 16 - 25 to consent toregistration with the Selective Service System for a possible military draft, SB-1081, has been introduced in the California legislature.The first hearing on this bill is scheduled for April 9 at the State Capital in Sacramento. Only in-person testimony will be accepted, but written testimony can be submitteduntil April 1.The April 9 hearing will be only the first of several, if the bill moves forward, but will set the tone for debate on the bill. This is a complicated bill and it does not mean that reinstatement of the draft is around the corner, but monitoring the situation is warranted.Learn more here. Read statements in opposition to SB-1081 from the National Lawyers Guild and American Friends Service Committee.
Webinar recording: JFK's Principles of Peace: How Do We Apply Them Successfully in Today's World? with David Hartsough On March 10, the JFK Peace Speech Committee with the Community Church of Boston presented a webinar featuring Quaker and lifelong peace activist David Hartsough. Following a showing of Kennedy's "Peace Speech" delivered at American University on June 10, 1963, David recounted his experiences as a Quaker in the peace movement in the 1960s and since, including his meeting with JFK in the Oval Office in May 1962. This meeting took place 13 months before Kennedy's speech at American University and may well have influenced the President's thinking which led to the speech, conclusion of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union, and other initiatives for peace. Watch the recording. David is a co-founder of World Beyond War and the Nonviolent Peaceforce. He is the author of Waging Peace: Global Adventures of a Lifelong Activist.
"Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger and the Wars in Southeast Asia" Wins Bancroft Award Congratulations to Carolyn "Rusti" Eisenberg, whose new book, "Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger and the Wars in Southeast Asia" is the recipient of this year's Bancroft Award, one of the most distinguished in the field of American history. The award honors "scope, significance, depth of research and richness of interpretation." Rusti is a historian of U.S. foreign relations who teaches at Hofstra University. For many years she served on UFPJ's Steering Committee, and as Co-coordinator of our Legislative Action working group. She has been on the Steering Committee of Historians Against the War/Historians for Peace and Democracy since 2004 and is a co-founder Brooklyn for Peace. We were honored when Rusti wrote to us: "This project was in so many ways a product of my experience in UFPJ, and the peace movement." Read the New York Times story.
Organize an Event for Daniel Ellsberg Week, June 10-16, 2024 Last year, the Defuse Nuclear War coalition celebrated the first Daniel Ellsberg Week. Seeking "to honor peacemaking and whistleblowing," the cities of Albuquerque, NM, San Francisco and Berkeley, CA issued proclamations designating April 24-30 as Daniel Ellsberg Week. This year Defuse Nuclear War will commemorate Ellsberg's life and work again by demanding a world beyond nuclear weapons.Daniel Ellsberg Week 2024will take place from June 10-16. By organizing a picket line, teach-in, vigil, or other event, you can give your community a chance to get involved with the ongoing struggle to end the threat posed by nuclear weapons. Defuse Nuclear War has templates to urge your local officials to pass a resolution honoring Daniel Ellsberg, or to write a letter to the editor of your local paper.Organize an event for Daniel Ellsberg Week 2024.
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On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before he was killed, in his prophetic speech, "
We are witnessing the dramatic consequences of escalating global militarization, evident in the numerous armed conflicts around the world, notably in Gaza and Ukraine, but also in many parts of the Global South. We are suffering the consequences of a militaristic approach to international relations and global emergencies, imposed mainly by countries of the North, which are at the same time responsible for most of the weapons produced. Moreover, the direct and indirect environmental impacts resulting from these conflicts and militarization further underscore the pressing need for peace. War is costing us the Earth. As we witness the global consequences of militarization, it becomes urgent to protest military budgets all around the world. Organizations and individuals are invited to join this year's GDAMS, April 15 -- May 15. 
After a month of hearings in the Guantanamo military commissions, the case against the men accused of planning and supporting the 9/11 terrorist attacks remains stalled by a core dispute over 
The global wave of protest against Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza has drawn crackdowns on speech from the streets to university campuses. One place government repression aimed at individuals and groups supporting Palestine has been particularly notable has been Germany. On March 17, United for Peace and Justice presented a panel featuring a variety of voices from Germany, and accounts of similar experiences in the United States. Learning about what is happening in Germany, a country with a history of official regulation of how the Holocaust can be discussed and how "anti-Semitism" should be defined, could provide new insights into the challenges we face in promoting a fair and open discussion of the Gaza crisis, and the history that has led us here. 
Nobody should wait until April to demand a permanent ceasefire now, no military aid to Israel, and reversing the ban on funding UNRWA to get badly needed humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. But Peace Action and a growing grassroots network including UFPJ are planning ahead to build participation for Congressional Advocacy Days April 9 - 19. We HAVE to make Congress act! Please join us for meetings on Capitol Hill, or online, to educate Members of Congress and their staff and to advocate for pathways to peace and justice. Plans include April 15 Tax Day actions in Washington, DC and nationally. To amplify our Advocacy Days, we plan to add Call-in Days and social media promotion, with information to come soon. 
On February 29th Brooklyn for Peace presented a forum titled "The Impact of The War on Gaza on Health and Human Rights." The speaker was Dr. Alice Rothchild, author, filmmaker, and physician. She has made many trips to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, most recently in August 2023. She is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council, the mentor liaison for "We Are Not Numbers," and serves on the board of the Gaza Mental Health Foundation. The Forum addressed the state of health care in Gaza before the October assault, and highlighted the impact of massive bombing and dislocation on civilians in Gaza and the international human rights laws violations that are occurring. 
The Gaza crisis has highlighted the struggle over who gets to define our identities. 
The UN has issued two reports on human rights in Ukraine. The first, 
A bill to require applicants for California driver's licenses ages 16 - 25 to consent to 
On March 10, the JFK Peace Speech Committee with the Community Church of Boston presented a webinar featuring Quaker and lifelong peace activist David Hartsough. Following a showing of Kennedy's "Peace Speech" delivered at American University on June 10, 1963, David recounted his experiences as a Quaker in the peace movement in the 1960s and since, including his meeting with JFK in the Oval Office in May 1962. This meeting took place 13 months before Kennedy's speech at American University and may well have influenced the President's thinking which led to the speech, conclusion of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union, and other initiatives for peace. 
Congratulations to Carolyn "Rusti" Eisenberg, whose new book, "
Last year, the 